Ducky's Paper for History of the Book

Assertions:

• written Arabic is different from spoken Arabic
• Arab culture discourages most art forms, leaving calligraphy as its highest(?) form
• literacy is low in Arabic-speaking countries
  • literacy went up in Turkey after switching to modified Latin alphabet
    • from 9 per cent in 1975 to 82.3 % in 1995. -- Lewis, Turkish catastrophe book
  • caveat: huge educational push at same time, language reform (toss borrow-words), Arabic ill-suited to Turkish
• number of books published in Arabic is low http://www.uis.unesco.org/TEMPLATE/html/CultAndCom/Table_IV_6_Asia.html * Jordan 511 new titles 1996, population 5,759,732 (July 2005 est.) * Switzerland new titles 15,271 in 1996, population 7,489,370 (July 2005 est.) * Lebanon, Iraq not listed in table * Switzerland from 1996 CIA factbook http://www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/wofact96/239.htm,total pop 7,207,060 , literacy 99% * Jordan 4,212,152 from 1996 CIA factbook http://www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/wofact96/135.htm, literacy 86.6%
• paper consumption is low http://www.uis.unesco.org/TEMPLATE/html/CultAndCom/Table_IV_S_2.html
  • writing paper consumption Arab 1997 states: , 2.1 kg per capita vs. 42 in America, 36 in Europe; 1970 consumption Arab states 0.5 vs US 22.1.
  • newsprint consumption 1997 Arab states: 1.0 kg/person vs. 18 US, 13.1 Europe

• Literacy, from 2005 CIA World Factbook
  • Switzerland 99% (1980 est)
  • Jordan 91.3%
  • Saudi Arabia 78.8%
  • Syria 76.9%
  • Lebanon 87.4%
  • Kuwait 83.5%
  • Egypt 57.7%
  • Morroco 51.7%
  • Mexico 92.2%

• Koran oral
• Koran not translated into vernacular
• British fired all Ottoman printers
• Lebanese civil war
• typography is a PITA (look up Thom's paper)
• Sharia is oral law (Messick?)
• typography: start and stop lines different
• type expensive
  • multiple letterforms
  • LOTS of ligatures
  • vowel points

• General paper on Arabic, lots of yummy refs, says MSA is lingua franca (local copy on slug)
• http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:MjN_bR3LUIoJ:www.nclrc.org/nectfl04ls.pdf+written+spoken+arabic+dialect
  • strategies of learning Arabic, says MSA intelligible to most but only educated can speak it
• text-to-speech paper, lots of yummy info poorly cited http://scholar.google.com/url?sa=U&q=http://www.amideast.org/publications/arabic-language.pdf
• http://www.springerlink.com/(xnucyy452wc3v1fejtifig45)/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,5,5;journal,41,53;linkingpublicationresults,1:104271,1
  • better comprehension with vowelpoints than without -- local arabicStudentsWithVowels.pdf
• http://www.springerlink.com/(jmwvvszstby2szuxhv2dwr55)/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,6,7;journal,50,53;linkingpublicationresults,1:104271,1
  • more accurate reading with vowelpoints than without -- local arabicAccuracyVowels.pdf
• reformation in Turkey (alas, wrong date) local copy

• THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN THE FORMATION OF TURKISH NATIONAL IDENTITY AND TURKISHNESS -- interesting stuff about history of language reform in Turkey

• Arabic Typography KOERNER LIBRARY stacks Z251.A6 A24 2001
• The Turkish language reform : a catastrophic success / Geoffrey Lewis. Koerner PL115 .L47 1999

Elizabeth Eisenstein recommends:

• Technology and Religious Change: Islam and the Impact of Print, Francis Robinson, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1, Special Issue: How Social, Political and Cultural Information Is Collected, Defined, Used and Analyzed. (Feb., 1993), pp. 229-251. -- local copy on slug also listed as Francis Robinson, "Technology and Religious Change: Islam and rhe Impact of Print," MODERN ASIAN STUDIES Vol 27 (Feb 1993) 229-251 and
• Juan R.I.Cole,"Printing and Urban Islam..." MODERNITY AND CULTURE ...ed. Leila Tarazi Fawaz, et.al. (Columbia U,2001) KOERNER DS57 .M63 2002 ON REQUEST

• Authentic Arabic -- local copy decotype.html
• http://www.decotype.com/AlKumbyuutar_cover_story.pdf (local copy) -- mostly in Arabic, but with some technical discussion in English(?)
• Tom mentioned something about the April issue of the Leiden academic journal Bibliotheca Orientalis
• case studies -- with links to his PDFs; this is from 18th Unicode conference -- Authentic Arabic: A Case Study. Right-to-Left Font Structure, Font Design, and Typography, cited by M Thomas - Manuscripta Orientalia, 2002
  • Intro
  • tech and asthetic challenges
  • right to left structure
  • Arabic script and typography / Thomas Milo, From Language culture type : International Type Design in the Age of Unicode, John D Berry, 2002, English Book Book ix, 373 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 31 cm., New York, N.Y. : ATypI : Graphis, ; ISBN: 1932026010
  • Authentic Arabic 2 -- from 20th IUC